"Nothing." Evan squinted. He had one arm around her, and she knew that was suppose to be a comfort, but it wasn't.

"How long have we been together, now?" He looked at her and gave her that little boy look he always did that meant he knew she loved him. "You gotta trust me, on this." He touched her cheek, but she wasn't buying it. She turned and sipped on her Dr. Pepper hoping it would settle her stomach.

"Why did we have to leave town at two in the morning?" She kept hugging herself.

"Cause, its a good time to go. Driving at night. We needed an early start."

"Why was that?"

"You didn't seem to mind at the time?"

She rolled her eyes. She was at his place after all, and they'd been listening to every song from the Young Blood Brass band on his Ipod. And after while it had turned in to something vaguely like romance, but possibly more like sex. And after the fun, well, she was ready to go just about anywhere with him.

"I didn't know you'd just keep driving." She frowned. "I want to go home."

"We can't. Not right now. It's not a good idea." He nursed his Mountain dew.

"I'm not a fucking storm chaser." She grabbed a fry then, dabbed it in the ketchup and ate it.

"I want to go to California," Evan said. "I have a cousin out there, we could stay with him. Get jobs."

"But I don't know." She ate another fry.

"Christ, what are we gonna do in Council Bluffs, huh? We just graduated high school, and you know you don't want to go to that dumb college just to be on the radio. That's- that's like high school all over again."

"At least, I had a plan," Ellie heaved. "What about all your plans to go to that graphic artist school in Kansas City?"

"You know, my folks didn't want to think about that when they split up."

"Right." She was good at hitting it on a sour note. She ate her burger then. He ate his. It was quiet then. Ellie hoped they got a room soon.